"Swear I hear new music and I just don't be feeling it/Racism's still alive, they just be concealing it."

Time and again, Kanye attempted to avail his followers of the single most important lesson about race in America: That concealed racism is far more dangerous than overt racism. Thus, from Kanye you get a lot less rapping about burning crosses and a lot more rapping like "Never Let Me Down," in which he exhorts his listeners to look hard at their favorite radio hits. The idea is that racism is everywhere: in our favorite products, in our social networks, in our music rituals. We celebrate it without knowing it. Kanye asked us to listen harder to our favorite songs. What are we really celebrating?